C060504 Where Minority Rules

Article II section II of the Constitution deals with which appointments
the President can make and gives the authority to the President for
nominating judges for the Supreme Court and other federal courts.
The only federal office voted on by the entire country, the Presidency,
is being overruled by a minority of the members of the U.S. Senate,
primarily Democrats, on federal court appointments.

Bucking the Constitution, traditions of the Senate, and the authority of
a twice elected President, the Democrats in the Senate have pushed
minority rule to new heights of outrage, not an easy task considering
recent history of minority rule in our nation and Congress.

The Senate requires a minimum of 60 members approving to end
debate on a subject and to allow for a vote to take place. This is
supposedly, according only to lore now, "the greatest deliberative
legislative body in the world." Minority rules too often. President Bush
has several nominees to the federal court and appellate courts that the
minority in the Senate has never given the minimum amount of respect
to by allowing an up or down vote. Political and partisan
gamesmanship, only slighlty muffled underneath by an ever-increasing
level of hostility towards President Bush and his choices for judges,
has the minority party successfully blocking the opportunity for a vote
guaranteed by our Constitution. Local Senate rules do not overrule the
Constitution, except in today's bizarre world of minority rule.

The Constitution has a few super-majority voting requirements dealing
with amendments to the Constitution being suggested, or to override a
Presidential veto, but these are final votes; the vote to end cloture
requiring a 3/5 super-majority is a procedural vote that allows minority
rule. This is not what the founding fathers suggested when they included
in the Constitution Article I, section V, "Each House may determine the
rules of its proceedings." Proceedings is the key word.

The majority in the Senate have allowed this shameful behavior to
continue by not requiring the minority to actually filibuster each
nominee; instead the majority just continually request cloture votes.
The uncomfortable time-consuming measures required of the majority
members in pushing the minority to actually filibuster are deemed to be
too much work and too much of an inconvenience. I suppose too much
time lost with lobbyists is the downside view of too many of our long-
term legislators. The majority should stand up and work for what's right
and damn the inconvenience. Right equals might!

Make the members of the minority stand up on the floor of the Senate
and explain their reasons for thwarting the Constitution and don't allow
any more work to be done on the Senate floor until they allow for the
federal court nominees to be given an up or down vote. The majority has
the Constitution, tradition, and principal on their side. The minority is
counting on the press and Americans not to care enough about the
federal court positions, but the minority did allow the recent Supreme
Court nominees to receive an up or down vote because those positions
are deemed of sufficient value by the press and the nation and the
minority's un-democratic maneuvers would not work.

It can be argued that the federal courts have a larger influence on
America than the Supreme Court. The federal courts produce far more
decisions and are more abt not to follow the moderate to conservative
leanings of our nation and legislate from the bench. We've seen this
time and time again. The minority in the Senate agrees with judges
legislating from the bench because this is their only way to fight the
Presidential ballot box that they usually lose.

We the people need to stop this un-democratic process by the minority
in this Senate and in any future Senate, whether made up of Democrats
or Republicans, by changing the Constitution. A few suggestions below.

Consent by the Senate to a new member to the Supreme Court shall be
given by a majority plus two votes of members. A vote of consent or
non-consent on a nominee to the Supreme Court, unless withdrawn by
the President of the United States, shall take place in the Senate within
6 months of a voluntary end of service, Section I end of service, or death
of a member.

Consent by the Senate to a new member to a U.S. Circuit Courts of
Appeal or U.S. Federal District Court shall be given by a majority plus
one vote of members. A vote of consent or non-consent on a nominee to
a U.S. Appellate Court or U.S. Federal Court, unless withdrawn by the
President of the United States, shall take place in the Senate within 9
months of a voluntary end of service, Section IV end of service, or death
of a member.